I didn’t realize earlier this year, when I embarked on strengthening my posterior chain – especially inner thigh and hamstrings, gaining access to them and learning how to use them (I never really had before in my life!), together with the quads, that sideline and unilateral work would come in hot right behind it all. Strengthening my posterior chain brought to light all the instabilities I still had in and around my pelvis. As my posterior chain grew stronger and the hip, knee, ankle and toe mobility gained greater range of movement, it was moving at the very outer and higher ranges where the aching and nervous system overload happened. The more I was able to coordinate hamstrings and inner thighs, the stronger those muscles got and the more room they needed to move in progressing ways. In comes the nerve pain, especially around the right piriformis and down the posterior chain into my foot. The inner thigh muscles (especially adductor magnus) getting stronger and able to internally rotate my femurs across midline, pulling on the pelvis while pulling on the sacrum which was pulling on the piriformis. I soldiered through a lot over the course of a couple weeks of not walking well but still teaching and performing well for classes. It was so interesting that when my muscles were warmed up and moving, a lot of the pain would subside. Thank goodness I do a lot of self training – at least an hour every day. It was this sideline training I embarked on, especially this side plank series, that melted all of the nerve pain away resulting in greater ranges of lower body movement and a well connected posterior chain.
(0.0-15.2) Hip dip + slide (slide carriage out/away from footbar) to Lateral Flexion in and up while lower limb draws carriage IN toward box
(15.2-15.4)-Hip dip slide in/out lateral arm abduct
(15.4- 36.5)+ spinal rotation – thread the needle (single arm wraps ribs and through)
(36.6-47.0)single arm side plank, knees flex and abduct, knees extend and adduct
(47.0-57.0) side plank – extension +hip dip